Simmons Field
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Simmons Field is a
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...
in Kenosha,
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
. It is currently home to the Kenosha Kingfish of the
Northwoods League The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not ...
, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers NCAA Division II baseball team, and a semi-pro team, the Kenosha Kings. It was the home field of the Kenosha Comets of the
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...
(AAGPBL). Since 2024, it has hosted the Kenosha vs Racine High School baseball All-Star Game.


History

Simmons Field opened in 1920 with a capacity of 7,000 as a home field for the Simmons Bedmakers, the Simmons Bedding Company's baseball team. The wooden grandstand burned down in its inaugural year and was rebuilt in 1930. Simmons sold the field in 1947, and the Kenosha Comets of the
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...
(AAGPBL) began play at Simmons Field in 1948. They would play at Simmons Field from 1948 to 1951. In 1984, Bob Lee purchased the
Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...
Single-A Single-A, formerly known as Class A and sometimes as Low-A, is the fourth-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States, below Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A, Double-A (baseball), Double-A, and High-A. There are 30 teams cl ...
Midwest League affiliate and moved them from Wisconsin Rapids to Kenosha to become the Kenosha Twins. While in Kenosha, $350,000 of improvements were made to Simmons Field and the Twins won two Midwest League championships. After the 1992 season the Twins moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana to become the Fort Wayne Wizards (today the Fort Wayne TinCaps). Like the Twins, the Kenosha Kings also began play at Simmons Field in 1984. A semi-pro team in the Wisconsin State League, they are the longest-residing team at Simmons Field. The semi-pro Kenosha Chiefs played at Simmons Field in 1993, and the Kenosha Kroakers played in the Northwoods League's inaugural season in 1994 and would play at Simmons Field until 1998. The
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
played a charity softball game in 1998, and 'N Sync played one in 1999. Simmons Field was home to professional baseball once more in 2003 when the Dubois County Dragons of the independent Frontier League moved and became the Kenosha Mammoths, who left after one season. The nonprofit Kenosha Simmons Baseball Organization worked to restore the stadium, and the City of Kenosha partnered with the owners of the Kenosha Kingfish to further upgrade the stadium at a cost of $1.4 million. The renovation was named the "Best Ballpark Renovation Under $2 Million" of 2014 from Ballpark Digest. The Kingfish began play at Simmons Field in 2014, and won the Northwoods League championship in 2015. Starting with the 2019 season, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers baseball team moved their home games from Oberbrunner Field on the UW-Parkside campus to Simmons Field. In 2023, it was announced that Simmons Field were having massive renovations. Ballpark renovations before the 2024 season included an artificial
turf Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses. In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...
playing surface, an all new state-of-the-art scoreboard to replace the old scoreboard, a brand new lighting system and an upgraded netting system behind home plate that extends down the baselines that are following Minor League Baseball’s field recommendations on fan safety netting.


Features

Simmons Field has a capacity of 3,218, and more than 2,100 seats in the stadium are from Camden Yards. In left field, The Bambino, forms part of the wall along with the Miller Lite Fish Bowl Club.


References

{{NWL ballparks Baseball venues in Wisconsin Minor league baseball venues Sports in Kenosha, Wisconsin 1920 establishments in Wisconsin Sports venues completed in 1920 High school baseball venues in the United States Defunct Midwest League ballparks